On Friday, March 14, 2003, at 10:30 AM, JstPlnKAT@aol.com wrote: > I also have a question, why were there so many people who lived the > the Stiles area who did get married in Scotland County? I'm just guessing, but there were two churches in that area that were prominent fixtures: the Barker church and the Catholic church. Of course Stiles is just a couple miles north of the state line. My mother grew up in that neighborhood. She lived in Missouri, but she tells me that when she was young, her family did most of their trading (where they bought dry goods, like flour, coffee and the like) at either Stiles, Hitt (in Missouri) or Pulaski. The other possibility is that they lived in Missouri. There are people even today that live in the northwest part of Scotland County that have Bloomfield, IA addresses. I would imagine that at one time those same areas had Stiles addresses. So when you say "Stiles area" that doesn't tell me much. In my own instance, I had a Downing phone number, a Downing address (and Downing is in Schuyler County), but lived in Scotland County and attended school in Memphis. Go figure. John Slavin Kirksville, MO jslavin@marktwain.net